As I stepped onto the boarding ramp, the ship’s horn sounded, vibrating deep in my chest.

Just before I crossed into my new life, my smartwatch — which I’d forgotten to unpair from the phone — buzzed on my wrist.

A text preview from Austin, bypassing the powered-down phone: MOM WHAT DID YOU DO? THERE IS A SHERIFF’S DEPUTY AT OUR APARTMENT DOOR SAYING WE ARE TRESPASSING.

CALL ME NOW!!! I unclasped the watch, dropped it in a trash bin, and walked onto the ship.

Chapter 5 — The Accounting of Sacrifice

Three weeks into the voyage, I sat on a sun-drenched balcony in Santorini, eating spanakopita and watching the Aegean glitter like crushed sapphires. I’d bought a cheap prepaid European phone strictly to reach my attorney.

Iris Delgado was a shark wrapped in a tailored Chanel suit. Months earlier, when I’d first come to her weeping over Austin’s financial demands, she’d looked at me over her tortoiseshell glasses and asked one piercing question: “Theresa, do you want to punish your son, or force him to survive?

Because I can write a document for either — but only one will let you sleep at night.”